Best Bets ) JN Digest Selected news and feature stories from the Detroit Jewish News. vvvvw.detroitjevvishnews.com/news CLASSICAL NOTES ) Back In Time Look for Alexis P. Rubin's "This Month in Jewish History" for January. vvwvv.detroitjewishnews.com ) Chaos and Quiet Back in Israel after a recent trip to India, Brian Blum reflects on the differences between the two countries in his Jewish.com column, This Normal Life. ) Untitled For Now A year after her Bat Mitzvah, Hana Daley found out she isn't Jewish. How did she handle the news? Find out on Jewish.com . _in advertisers online www.detroitjewishnews.com/advertisers Ira Kaufman Chapel... www.irakaufman.com GIFTS DetailsArt.com www.detailsart.com FDTE JEWELRY Tapper's Jewelry 1/16 2004 38 ... www.tappers.com For online advertising, call 248-354-6060 2 Tuesdays at the JCC in Oak Park from Jan. 19- Feb. 10. Staged readings include A Song for Chaim Levy, by Art Schwartz, Jan. 19-20; It Should Be, by Ted Herstand, Jan. 26-27; Mensch, by Shoshannah Boray, Feb. 2-3; and Coming of Age, by Kitty Dubin, Feb. 9-10. Suggested ticket/donation: $5. (248) 788-2900. A celebration of University Musical Society's 125th anniversary and the reopening of the Albert Kahn-designed Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor will culminate with a performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music, a work inspired by Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 17, at Hill THE SMALL SCREEN Auditorium. The evening's performers include GAIL ZIM M ERMAN TNT airs a new production of Neil Simon's countertenor David Daniels, violinist Midori, Arts & Entertainment soprano Audra McDonald and more. $10-$75. Editor The Goodbye Girl, directed by Richard Benjamin and starring Patricia Heaton, Jeff (734) 764-2538. In a concert titled Winter Wonderland, Daniels, Hallie Kate Eisenberg and Alan Cumming, 8 Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings performs works by p.m. Friday-Sunday, Jan. 16-18. It's based on Simon's classical masters Haydn, Rossini and Reicha, and contem- 1977 film that starred Richard Dreyfuss in an Academy porary composer Elliot Carter, 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 18, at Award-winning Best Actor role. Check your local listings. Temple Shir Shalom in West Bloomfield. U-M musicolo- Detroit Public Television-Channel 56 hosts the docu- gist Steven Whiting offers a preview presentation, titled mentary The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer's, in "Night Winds and Haydn Seek," at 2:15 p.m. Tickets which three victims of the disease and their families are available at the door; $19-$25. (248) 559-2095. profiled along with the researchers battling Alzheimer's, 9 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 21. A follow-up show, beginning at 10:30 p.m. and hosted by David Hyde Pierce, offers POP/ROCK/JAZZ/FOLK viewers an opportunity to find answers to their questions With lyrics both heartbreaking and hilarious, pop/rock about the disease. Check your local listings. singer-songwriter Matt Nathanson visits The Ark in Ann Arbor 8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 19. $10. (734) 761-1451. FAMILY FUN Ann Arbor's Wild Swan Theater presents Frog and Toad, an adaptation of Arnold Lobel's beloved stories about animal JEWISH MUSIC friends, 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 11 Akiva Hebrew Day School in Southfield hosts its annu- a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 22-24, at Towsley al family concert and afterglow, featuring the Detroit Auditorium in Washtenaw Community College's Morris J. debut performance of the popular band The Chevra, Lawrence Building, 4800 E. Huron River Dr., in Ann Arbor. Saturday, Jan. 17, at the school. Doors open at 7:45; tick- $6-$8. (734) 424-9591. ets available at the door. General seating: $15 adults, $10 children 12 and under. (248) 352-2772. Visions, a trio of college women who have been singing THE ART SCENE together since they were teens, have recorded three Ann Arbor's Washington Street Gallery hosts 12 + 12, albums of Jewish music and return to the Detroit area 2 an invitational exhibit featuring the work of a dozen gallery p.m. Sunday, Jan. 25, at Congregation Shaarey Zedek. members and the regional artists each has chosen to exhibit Advance purchase general admission tickets: $5 (free, ages with them. Artists whose works are on display include 2 and under); advance purchase patron tickets (premium Laura Strowe (pastel landscapes), Norma Penchansky- seating and meet and greet pass): $25. Tickets at the Glasser (figurative bronze sculptures), Kay Yourist (ceram- door: $7 general admission; $30 patron. (248) 357-5544. ics), Michelle Hegyi (abstract and digital prints) and Leslie Sobel (digital prints and encaustics). (734) 761-2287. ON THE STAGE Ann Arbor Civic Theatre's production of Fiddler on the Roof is staged not in a Russian village but amid the expressionist art (based on the paintings of Marc Chagall) of the show's early 1900s timeframe. Performances are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 16-18, at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre in Ann Arbor. $19- $21. (734) 763-8587. St. Dunstan's Theatre Guild of Cranbrook presents The 1940s Radio Hour, a nostalgic trip down memory lane fea- turing big-band music and an old-fashioned situation comedy, Jan. 16-25. Call for show times. $13-$16. (248) 644-0527. Jewish Ensemble Theatre presents the 2004 Seymour J. and Ethel S. Frank Festival of New Plays 7:30 p.m. Mondays at the JCC in West Bloomfield and 7:30 p.m. WHATNOT Dr. Sheri Fink has worked in conflict and dis- aster zones around the world. Meet the author of War Hospital: A True Story of Surgery and Survival? p.m. Monday, Jan. 19, at the Farmington CommUnity Library, 32737 W. 12 Mile Road. Free; call (248) 553-0300, Ext. 327, to register. Visions, a college-aged trio, performs Jan. 25 at Congregation Shaarey Zedek. FYI: For Arts and Entertainment related events that you wish to have considered for Out & About, please send the item, with a detailed description of the event, times, JN Out & About, The Jewish News, 29200 Northwestern. Highway, Suite 110, Southfield, dates, place, ticket prices and publishable phone number, to: Gail Zimmerman, three weeks before the scheduled event. Photos MI 48034; fax us at (248) 304-8885; or e-mail to gzimmerman@thejewishnews.com Notice must be received at least are appreciated but cannot be returned. All events and dates listed in the Out & About column are subject to change.